The thieves who broke windows of local stores and stole merchandise in protest are simple "looters." If they were violent "anarchists," they would have blown up or burned down the courthouse where the verdict they felt was wrong was handed down. That would have been a protest statement with a meaning the media could not have distorted so easily.

Of course, the media has a habit of using the wrong terms to describe attendees of these events. In the 60's, they kept referring to the "students" who were demonstrating. Yes, there may have been some students in the crowds, but a "student" is someone who studies. There were many older, non-students in those crowds, and the demonstrations were not acts of studying. I suggested to the newspapers at the time that "protesters" or even "rabble" (which would better express the media's and government's contempt) would have been more accurate words to use to describe them in the daily news stories. No one in media paid any attention to the accuracy of their terminologies in those days, either.